What Do ‘Husband’ And ‘Wife’ Mean In Same-Sex Marriages? Tennessee Lawmakers Hope To Pin Down Courts

Mother. Father. Husband. Wife.

What do words like that mean in the context of same-sex marriage?

Tennessee lawmakers say they should mean what they have in the past, and that has LGBT rights groups worried.

The debate stems from
a custody case in Knoxville, in which two women divorced and a court was asked to decide whether the non-biological parent should have full custody rights. Lawyers argued she was covered by Tennessee laws on the rights of “husbands” and “fathers.”

John Stevens, an attorney and Republican senator from West Tennessee, says that’s something state lawmakers — not unelected judges — should determine.

“It’s this body that’s the proper forum to have debates like that, and not within the court system, because the people have empowered this body,” he said.

Stevens has helped pass a measure,
House Bill 1111, that says laws have to read using their “natural and ordinary meaning.” He says it will eliminate confusion.

But LGBT rights groups believe Republicans are trying to create legal problems for people in same-sex relationships, and Senate minority leader Lee Harris, who’s also a lawyer, agrees with them.

“This bill still has caused a lot of worry among Tennesseans all over, and it’s caused particularly high anxiety among lesbian and gay Tennesseans,” he says. “Their distress is my distress, and their distress should be our distress.”

The measure is now before Gov. Bill Haslam. LGBT rights groups are urging him to veto it.